300 &... Hating America?

The Huffington Post: 300 Reasons to Hate America

What's unusual about 300 is its convergence with the axis-of-evil message Washington favors. Ancient Persians is a proxy for contemporary Iran; the Spartans are stand-ins for America's Western Civ forebears. The Persian are costumed as though they just stepped out of one of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps; the Greeks look like they spend all their free time at Bally Total Fitness.

But

U.S. Marines have a different reaction:

A bunch of US Marines thought the film a cracking good time:

There was periodic cheering Monday night at the Regal multiplex in downtown Oceanside, a few blocks from the main gate of Camp Pendleton, where young Marines attended showings of “300″ on three screens. Some Marines nodded in recognition at lines in the movie that were familiar from their training — such as when King Leonidas instructs his son that the more troops sweat in training, the less they will bleed in combat.

“When the Spartan officer says that Spartans are all about protecting the guy to the left and right rather than being worried about themselves, that struck a chord,” said Pfc. James Lyons, 20. “That’s what they tell us all the time.”

The Guardian:

Hollywood declares war on Iranians,'' blared a headline in Tuesday's edition of the independent Ayende-No newspaper.

In Iran, the movie hasn't opened and probably never will, given the government's restrictions on Western films, though one paper said bootleg DVDs were already available.

And Zach Snyder on his film:

He really didn't mean to make a political statement.

"I'm pretty obvious. It's not like: 'Zack Snyder weaves his web so subtly. He's the most subtle filmmaker of our time.' I mean, come on!

Xerxes isn't for everyone.

"The people I made the movie for, people like myself, love Rodrigo in it. He's fun. One of the major gay Web sites likes the movie and one hates it. And they pick out Rodrigo in particular."

This stuff really happened! Well, most of it anyway.

"The events are 90 percent accurate. It's just in the visualization that it's crazy. A lot of people are like, "You're debauching history!" I'm like, "Have you read it?" I've shown this movie to world-class historians who have said it's amazing. They can't believe it's as accurate as it is."

Besides, it's an opera, not a documentary.

"My movie is more like an opera than a drama. That's what I say when people say it's historically inaccurate. You have to understand the convention I'm working in. Everything is at 11."